Traditionally, pharmacies have used inventory management software installed at the pharmacy to track the amount of a particular drug product (e.g., prescription medication, medical device, etc.) that has been disbursed and how much remains at the pharmacy. This information is used to determine when to order more supply of a particular drug and to track the disbursement of drugs to patients. While pharmacies have relied on such inventory management software to track their drug supply, these systems are costly to install and maintain at a pharmacy or for a chain of pharmacies. Moreover, such inventory management software information is often only accessible by the pharmacy and is dependent on the pharmacists' (or their agents or employees) entry of disbursement information in the inventory management software system and is therefore susceptible to error, fraud, and abuse with no external oversight.
The risk for fraud and abuse rises when the drugs being prescribed are controlled substances or scheduled drugs. Scheduled drugs are those drugs classified in one of five schedules as determined by the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). The five schedules are categories separated by the abusive and/or addictive nature of the drug and include:                Schedule I—a category of drugs not considered legitimate for medical use (e.g., heroin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), etc.)        Schedule II—a category of drugs considered to have a strong potential for abuse or addiction but that also have legitimate medical use. (e.g., opium, morphine, etc.)        Schedule III—a category of drugs that have less potential for abuse or addiction than Schedule I or II drugs and have a useful medical purpose (e.g., short-acting barbiturates and amphetamines, etc.)        Schedule IV—a medically useful category of drugs that have less potential for abuse or addiction than those of Schedules I, II, and III (e.g., diazepam and chloral hydrate, etc.)        Schedule V—a medically useful category of drugs that have less potential for abuse or addiction than those of Schedules I through IV (e.g., anti-diarrhea medication, etc.).        
For such controlled substances as well as other prescription drugs, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is placing an increasing emphasis on Risk Minimization Action Plans (RiskMAPs) at the point of granting drug product approvals. A RiskMAP is a strategic safety program designed to meet specific goals and objectives in minimizing known risks of a product while preserving its benefits. A RiskMAP targets one or more safety-related health outcomes or goals and uses one or more tools to achieve those goals. A RiskMAP may incorporate a plan for controlling and closely monitoring drug inventories and drug supply ordering. However, when it comes to drug inventory management, many pharmacies participate in an open distribution model where there are an unlimited number of wholesalers distributing product and pharmacy providers dispensing product. This open distribution model does not support product distribution and product dispensing controls and monitoring that are needed for high risk drug products where the use of RiskMAPs are desirable. Other pharmacies manage their drug product inventory by a limited distribution model where product distribution and dispensing is limited to a contract network of participants. What is needed is a way to provide cost effective drug inventory management to a pharmacy while providing better control and monitoring of drug product inventory without limiting patient access or distribution timeliness.